(Most of my gig journals are about one particular night, but since this one is about an ongoing gig, I'll be revising it over time, and including new sound clips, so check this page frequently for updates. -- Most recent update: Nov 6, 2008)

I've been playing Friday and Saturday nights with John Melisi at Jonathan's Restaurant since June of 2008.

The Room

We set up in the bar, in front of the piano bar. The bar area is surronded on two sides by the restaurant. As you can see in the photos, there are openings behind us, with stained glass hangings, so our music carries into the dining room. As my left is a doorway that leads to the dining room. My amp is directly behind be, aimed at the curved area of the bar, so the sound bounces around and covers nicely. The ceiling is low, and the floor is carpeted, so the room soaks up a lot of sound. All the wood provides a nice warm tone, but it is a little hard to get the highs to ring out. I wedge my Peavey amp up against the piano bar and the wall so the vibrations are reinforced. As a result, the bass notes are nice and fat.

July 19, 2008

I picked this cut to include in the journal because, after listening to the recording of this night, John thought that we both played very well on it. John often mistakes the title of this tune, calling it "There Will Never Be Another You." So I was ready to play "Another You." After a few notes I caught on. On the recording, you can hear me say, "Oh, the other 'There' tune." The take has a nice groove, and the trading fours came out pretty well.

October 3, 2008

On this Friday night, I'd just gotten my trusty old Ampeg back from the repair shop. It was responding well, and that really inspired my playing. I found myself using a lot more sustained notes, and being less busy in my soloing, just because the notes sounded so good. Here are some things to notice about this performance (numbers represent seconds into the take):

0 – 0:26 comping kicks behind head.

0:26 – 0:49 comping with walking bass behind head

0:49 – 1:18 walking bass with no chords behind solo

1:19 – 1:40 add some chords to walking bass

1:41 – 2:26 one chorus guitar solo, lines mixed with chords.

2:27 - 3:13 single line guitar solo

3:14 - 4:59 simultaneous improvising

5:00 - end comping with walking bass behind head

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November 8, 2008

There were two couples at the bar who were really enjoying the music. They talked with us between tunes. They had heard John at some clubs in the Lebanon, NH, area back in the 70s. They had heard John at the Starlight Lounge there. One guy was a guitar player; we had a nice chat about guitars. He owned a Gibson 335, which is similar to my Aria, and a Gretsch hollow-body.

They really liked my solo on "I'll Remeber April." Here's the solo:

They also liked my solo on "Once I Loved." Here's the solo:

And here's the whole tune:

As the two couples were getting ready to leave, we were playing "Emily," a tune we've recently added to our repertoire. The applauded for the tune and told how much they had enjoyed our music.